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FEATURE

Notably Quotable

Edge Staff's picture

By Edge Staff

September 23, 2005

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In the past month, Next Generation has interviewed the industry on a variety of topics. Here's your chance to catch some of the great pieces you might have missed.

On the Revolution Controller
"I feel just like a child with a new toy, opening millions of new doors of possibilities. More than an improvement, this way of playing is creating a new dimension."
Michel Ancel
Game Designer, Ubisoft


"Realistically for the first couple years most developers will be adapting their old games to fit this interface with only a couple really taking advantage of it. Give it a couple game cycles and we should see some interesting stuff at E3 '07. I haven’t been this excited since Sony put a second stick on their controller."
Chris Cross
Game Design Director, EA LA

"But I’m great at forming opinions based on news I skim through and forum posts I chortle at. Later I find the information out to be at the very least “quite inaccurate”, and at the very most “wildly inaccurate and possibly libelous”. So I’ll hold off until I’ve juggled one of these in my own, slightly sweaty hands. Until then, I shall plug in a Sega fishing controller into my Dreamcast, and play Soul Calibur with it…"
David S J Hodgson
Freelance Writer (formerly of EMAP, Gamefan, Gamers Republic and incite)


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On the Pitfalls of Episodic Content
"Failures in the early episodic content models could result in a chilling effect on other companies planning to take the plunge. The two major factors in the expectation setting process are price and scope, and it ties back into that same question of 'what can I buy with my entertainment dollar?'. My expectations of what I get for $5, $10 and $20 are different and my expectations probably don't match yours."
Mark Thomas
Senior ISV Manager, ATI Technologies

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On Revolution Pricing
While we have not released information about pricing, we do recognize that in order to expand the market and reach new consumers price is an influencing factor.  Price will be a major consideration in future consoles as the cost of technology continues to rise.  As we've already seen with the currently announced pricing for Microsoft's Xbox 360, gamers looking for a new system around the holidays this year could easily spend over $500, which could be too high for many consumers."
Beth Llewelyn
Senior Director of Corporate Communications, Nintendo of America

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On Developers Doing PR
"No one really wants to do the business or promotion side of any artistic project – but if you don’t you’re at the mercy of whatever happens. Just put your head in the sand and hope for the best?"
Mike Wilson
Co-Founder, CEO, Gathering of Developers

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On the Misconception of Glass Ceilings
"Am I the only woman in the games industry who doesn't feel the need for us
ladies to be 'recognized' for working within the market? I'm speaking, of
course, about the bodies and events being organized specifically for the
fairer sex. Sorry, but the whole Women In Games thing makes me really angry. And not just during a certain time of the month."
Lisa Foster
Editor-in-Chief, MCV

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On Second Hand Software
"If you walk into EB in the US, they try and sell you a second hand version of a game before a new one. I think that's bad… Those resold games use server resources, tech support. The majority of guys calling up saying "I don't have my serial number", I'm sure a lot of those are resold. It costs us money. Those customers think they paid for it, and they're entitled to support. The reality is, we didn't get paid. They didn't pay us."
Mark Rein
Vice President, Epic Games

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On Game Pricing Strategies
"The next gen world is considerably more complex - and prices for titles that deliver on pushing this complexity will definitely reflect that. We couldn't deliver the type of consumer experiences we're delivering in Full Auto as an example, on an existing machine."
Scott Steinberg
Vice President of Marketing, Sega of America

"We believe videogame consumers will view the new consoles and their software products as a separate market from the existing videogame systems and their products. We expect consumers to see the increased functionality, graphics and overall gaming experience of the new systems as an upgrade to current systems and be willing to pay more for this improved experience."
Miguel Irabarren
Vice President of Publishing, Midway Games

"I would suspect that other next generation software will also try for this higher price point. Costs are escalating everywhere and we have tried to maintain that $50 cap for quite a long time. The cost of building new games is going up."
Bill Gardener
President, Eidos

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On Profitability
"I don't know that on many of the game titles if we'll make money on them. What they're going to do is help us sell hardware. As we look at our advertising budgets, we could go and burn ads, taking out pages in magazines and talking to editors, or you can pay, what seems like a lot of money as compared to what you might initially expect to sell, in order to get some big name games for your platform."
Mike Carrender
CEO, Tiger Telematics

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On Gaming's Place in the World
"Everyday life is full of fun and stimulating things. The feeling of just riding a bicycle, or the sensation of sand on your bare feet when you're walking on a beach. The happy feeling that you get when you decide to skip - the increase in your heartbeat that happens when you just decide to stop in the middle of a road crossing. You couldn't really say that they are meaningful things - but they all help you realize that everyday life is quite good fun too. You don't need games to have fun. And possibly, you don't even need games at all."
Keita Takahashi
Game Designer, Namco (creator or Katamari Damacy)

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On the Value Business
"This is the fifth PS2 Christmas and, if you look back to the PS1 days, this is when the market for value really starts to take off. We believe there is another four to five years of this. I'm a firm believer in what Sony says, which is that this is a ten year cycle."
Rob Dyer
President and COO, Crave

For more insights from developers, publishers and others in the industry, check out our redesigned Interviews, Games, Companies and Opinion sections.